Chapter 8 Background Three

  The reasons and consequences of abandoning Chang'an, originally the six armies of the northern court had 100,000 soldiers, plus the five garrisons and three guards of the southern army, as well as the garrison troops in the Guanzhong region, at least 300,000 soldiers. To say nothing of defending, even if they went out to fight, it would be more than enough, but the actual situation was that the southern army had 200,000 long-term guards and cavalrymen, most of whom were on a three-year rotation, and only one-third were on duty at any given time. The Guanzhong region had been peaceful for a long time, and under the rule of Yang and Li, the two prime ministers, corruption and embezzlement were rampant in the military, and many soldiers who were good at fighting were transferred away. In the three wars against An Lushan during the Tianbao era, they died one after another, and their vacancies became opportunities for people to eat empty rations, without being replenished, resulting in many units not recovering until now. The northern army's monitoring system was intact, but when King Ying and Gao Xianzhi formed a large army to suppress the rebels, they took away the two armies of Shenwu, and Geshu Han took away the remaining southern and northern armies, as well as the local garrison troops from various states, prefectures, and counties, leaving only a small number of troops to maintain order in the capital city. Many people in the southern army were fake soldiers who ate military rations but ran away at the first sound of war drums. As a result, after the loss of Tongguan, the large city of Chang'an was left with only 7,000 soldiers from the Youlin Army and 2,000 guards, which was no match for the tens of thousands of rebel troops. Even if the city walls were high and strong, it would be impossible to hold on, and many more people ran away during the retreat, resulting in today's predicament. After my reorganization, I managed to gather a few thousand more soldiers.

  The main infantry of this era consisted of Pikemen and Swordsmen, the former equipped with long-handled weapons such as spears, halberds, and pikes, while the latter were equipped with shields of various sizes, swords, axes, broadswords, hammers, and hooks. They wore mainly metal and leather laminated armor. The cavalry wore mainly front and rear articulated cuirasses. Equipped with short-handled lances with a grip and a tail that could be inserted into the ground, they were known as "gun cavalry" or "lancers". They had strong impact force against nomadic tribes head-on, but their mobility was slightly inferior to that of the nomadic light cavalry. In addition to these, there were also Huji camps composed of Tangut soldiers and surrendered troops in the border armies, as well as Suwei camps composed of exiled convicts. During the Tang Dynasty, there was no strict distinction between different types of soldiers, except for the training received by cavalrymen. The combat capabilities were generally average, with differences only in equipment. Therefore, even if a unit was equipped mainly with archers and crossbowmen, it would also have 150 pikemen and swordsmen as a combined battalion to provide close protection. In addition, some Huji cavalry with high mobility would be deployed as scouts and sentries in the Tunji and Yueji camps.